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Before I get to the point of this post I would like to thank everyone in advance for taking the time to read this and reply with some feedback. Any criticism would be helpful and greatly appreciated. I'll try and keep the post as short as possible.
I completed my nursing program in May 2011 with an Associates Degree in Nursing and graduated in August 2011. January 2012 I passed the NCLEX-RN and am now a licensed RN in New York State.
For the past 8 months I've been applying daily and have yet to receive any job offers. The only interview I have been able to land has been an RN position in the Emergency Department (my ultimate goal, however I will take ANYTHING* in acute care). This job hunting has been stressful to say the least. I'm feeling frustrated and starting to feel lost at the moment. Currently I'm looking into volunteer work and enrolling in an RN-BSN program (beginning in spring 2013).
What else can I do to gain the necessary experience to obtain an entry level position in acute care?
Are there any hospitals that are friendly to new graduate RNs? I will move anywhere provided I'm able to gain employment**.

Please be brutally honest. All suggestions and help are greatly appreciated! Resume/ cover letter:

I was pleased to learn of your need for an Emergency Department Registered Nurse, as my career goals are directly in line with this opportunity.

My educational background and work experience have provided me with an excellent foundation required to be an effective part of your team. I am confident that a challenging environment such as yours will provide an excellent opportunity to best utilize my skills while contributing to the healthcare community, patients and their families. My strong initiative and passion to learn, combined with my ability to work well under pressure, will enable me to make a substantial contribution to Northern Wxxxxxxx Hospital.

I look forward to an interview with you to discuss my education and experience. Please contact me at (845) 555-5555 or at the address above. I have enclosed a copy of my resume with this letter. Thank you for your attention and consideration.

I would also in your resume provide traits about your personality---I am a hard worker, I am a quick thinker, Honest, trustworthy, friendly and so on. Also what seems to help me is putting pertinent courses I took in college.

I feel your pain, I am also a old new grad. But I am volunteering and obtaining my BSN as of now too. I just landed a job interview today!! yay! Just stay positive and keep yourself out in the open and make yourself known!! Go to the places where you would like a job bring your resume, transcripts, license and such and go to human resources or the nurse manager and tell them about the job you are interested in and why you are right for that position.

I just wanted to ask if you are truly comfortable with the possibility that with the information you have given, there is a chance that someone might be able to identify you. Someone recently posted an article on AllNurses that speaks of some of the undesirable outcomes that have happened to certain members when they have been identified through their posts. I don't know if you are a new member, but I know you can edit your post for a certain time if you have an unpaid membership; I believe if you want to edit your post after that time period you have to contact the help desk.

My suggestion is to keep it brief and to the point. I had submitted a resume to a couple hospitals here in NY and received negative feedback from them in regards to the clinical experience from school that I listed. They didn't find that information necessary. If it were me, I would take that out. Also, list the dates of your certifications (BLS,license....).

One nurse recruiter told me that the easier a resume is to read, and the more concise it is, the more willing a nurse manager will be to look at it...(which makes sense if they have to shuffle through a lot of them!)

REFERENCESConventional wisdom here is to put "available upon request", but if you have strong references from some of your nursing school professors or some of the nurses you did clinicals with, and they've given you the ok to use them as a reference, you might go ahead and list them. The benefit to putting "available upon request" is you know if they want to check your references. The benefit to go ahead and listing them is you've taken some work out of the hiring manager's pool to get in touch with you to ask for the numbers. That might be a difference in getting the first call, or someone else getting the first call, to interview.

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to share your experiences and advice.*My only regret is not joining this online community sooner.

Regarding clinical experience.... I have been hearing 2 sides.*

1) " less is more" recommending complete omission of clinical info as a student ....as I'm sure this looks like fluff for a new graduate RN.
2) list the hospital, specialty( ei: Hospital, city, state, med/surg,date *in reverse chronological order to emphasize that my clinical experience as a student nurse were within an acute *care setting.

I would not list clinical experiences unless you were an intern / extern type position. Every nursing student has nursing clinicals in school - you address your clinical acumen when you list your actual skills. As in, I would be comfortable checking off these skills in my first two days of orientation.

If, in clinicals, you took advantage of every urinary catheter or IV stick or IM injection that came your way - you list it in clinical skills.

This way, you can give the HR people a basic idea of how much training you will require in given skill sets. At the same time, if you've only started one IV or two urinary catheters, I wouldn't list them... because you're going to need at least a little coaching through the skills check off.

May i suggest, a few changes in the order of your items. I got these from recruiters, HR managers when I could get them to look at my resumes. Definetly put your title because I had one recruiter ask me so what are you LPN or RN can't tell. In a way all new grads are alike zero exp and want a job. So you must do something to separate yourself. Use expensive resume paper, send thank you letters, give weekly/bi weekly phone calls, practice interviewing so it flows. Eh NYC is so saturated so every recruiter has thier own preferences BUT i find that this format works best for most. I write 2 resumes one designed for computer scanning and another meant for human eyes.

I'd suggest leaving out the entire line refernces avaliable becuse well it is aailable why waste space. AND I do not include references because one if they're intersted I'd immediately fax it over and #2 I do not want my refernces contacted unless they're seriously interested in me aka call me in for an interview first. I'll bring it then. I protect my references from being unecssarily bothered because they're busy people so only employers who are willing to interview me will have access to that info, nor do i want employers to reserach me before hand

I wouldn't ever say "references available on request". That's unnecessary and a waste of space. Also, your cover letter is quite generic. You want to include something in your cover letter that is going to make the recruiter want to read your resume. For example, was there a particular experience in one of your clinicals that you could highlight? Did you work as an extern? Based on the organization's values, mission, philosophy....how does that resonate with you?

I just wanted to ask if you are truly comfortable with the possibility that with the information you have given, there is a chance that someone might be able to identify you. Someone recently posted an article on AllNurses that speaks of some of the undesirable outcomes that have happened to certain members when they have been identified through their posts. I don't know if you are a new member, but I know you can edit your post for a certain time if you have an unpaid membership; I believe if you want to edit your post after that time period you have to contact the help desk.

I can see by the info provided we live like 1 town away from each other